Ross Detwiler allowed three runs over five innings in his return from the DL.

Game in a nutshell: In the rubber game of the first series of a long road trip, the Nationals found themselves needing to rally from behind to beat a tough Rockies club. Ryan Zimmerman gave them an early 2-1 lead on his 10th homer of the season, but Colorado came right back to take a 3-2 lead off the just-reinstated Ross Detwiler. Still trailing in the seventh, the Nationals "rallied" to tie the game thanks to back-to-back balks called on reliever Wilton Lopez (who was subsequently ejected). They then took the lead in more conventional fashion, getting back-to-back doubles from Roger Bernadina and Zimmerman, then an RBI single from the red-hot Ian Desmond (who went 4-for-4 to extend his hitting streak to 15 games). Solid relief work from Craig Stammen, Xavier Cedeno and Drew Storen bridged the gap to Rafael Soriano, who did allow one run to score in the ninth before sealing his 17th save. Thus the Nationals head to Cleveland with a series victory, a winning record (33-32) and a deficit in the NL East that has now been trimmed to 5 1/2 games.

Can anyone clear this up for me – I thought Espinosa was supposed to get his shoulder repaired and his 'broken wrist or hand' repaired. yet he playing? they're not considering bringing him back I hope?

Espi had MRI's– apparently no one is worried about the shoulder. He is on the DL – this is officially a rehab start. He got a magical cortisone shot and is clear to begin baseball activities- 3 innings today. It is unclear how long he will stay in AAA.

Drew- thanks for the excellent review. Very exciting.Steve J. – they never said anything about Danny's shoulder. He got a cortisone shot in his wrist & was sent to AAA to work things out. As I said earlier, I hope it's quite a lengthy time.Swami, will ignore with ease.

I am grateful for the Chief's info, NatsJack and others. Thanks.LessPlatu, I wonder who you used to post as. Regardless, I know now to ignore all you post (and you post a lot) just like I learned for some others. I suggest we all do the same.

Although he'll totally deny it…..no ones seems to be recognizing the unmistakable presence of one "Poppy McPoop". He's a master at stinking up a Nats blog and totally gets off on it.Gonat said: "Have some respect". Gonat, he could care less.

oh man, what a child you are less whatever… go to bed. this is an awesome site and yes, i am new (as i think you are but could be wrong) but have some respect. we don't need you to read play by play of the O's or any other game. You may, MAY have some insight if you are a real baseball fan but you are not showing that to be true…enough of the hate.

Swami/JaneB – I'm with ya…But in other Nats news – I wonder who gets sent down when SS comes back…. I keep forgetting that Mattheus is on the DL… Seems like the BP is coming together… Also wondering about C Garcia….

Tayo, I am also wondering about Souza. I was checking out his stats on the Harrisburg site and he is actually hitting better than even Rendon was during his time there, and Rendon was dominating the league. It certainly seems like he could get a cup of coffee in September if he can keep up the pace for the rest of the season. Taylor Jordan is also just dominating and it seems like he came completely out of nowhere.

Jinx – SJM! HahahahahahahahI actually think the Nats are lucky to be where they are right now in the grand scheme of things…Also was thinking earlier – I doubt Cedeno goes back down becuz DJ alluded to not wanting to over use Abad….

I don't know enough about the all star selection process to know if/how Desi could get in… I don't have the sense he's popular enough to win a popular vote, but if he keeps it up there would be a good argument for him making it…

dcvelobrew…agree re. Souza, read a real nice article on him in the Harrisburg paper, kind of turned his life around after a dust-up with the coach in A…good speed and now a good attitude…would expect him to be called up in September, maybe.

Yeah, and Souza seems like he has been around forever in our organization but he is still only 24. He keeps this up, I think he competes with Goodwin(who has been struggling a bit to adjust to AA so far) for potential cf of the future. No?

In think Desi could be a manager selection again. A lot of guys turn it down because they are dinged up . Tulo might turn it down because he has been dealing with a rib issue. Some of them quite frankly just want to rest and they make something up. Do you really want Bryce out there? Jordan would be ok- he can handle it. With Davey being a coach, I think Bochy would choose him. They have discretion to fill out their teams.

David, with Davey as an All Star coach for Bochy, hopefully he has a say. Right now it's Jordan Zimmermann and maybe Strasburg with Bryce Harper on the popular vote. Desi after today is right back in the discussion and Bochy's own guy Brandon Crawford is nipping at Desi's heals. If you go by OPS, Desi is 3rd.

Thanks, Paul. I sort of remember that Souza was suspended for using some sort of banned substance a few years ago, but I could be wrong about that. Good to hear he seems to have grown up a bit since then. Now that all the big names have sort of made their way up to the big leagues, it is interesting to see who else may be contributing in the next few months/years.

I think the Chad Tracy issue is a tricky one. Not yet? They give it more time? All the defensive positions are covered for an emergency now. If Marrero shows pop? If Tyler finds his power? Don't know what they will do. Msybe he will heat up and they won't have to do anything.

sjm308 said… On another note, ever since Candide used the negative lock on how few walks we would have, I think our lads have 12 in the last two games. Props once again to One of our resident scholars!Thanks – I forgot to crow over that! What was it I set the over/under for the doubleheader at – 3?Shoulda done Espi a favor and predicted some ungodly number of strikeouts his last series. He'd probably have been the NL Player of the Week.I DID predict we won't see Strasburg again until the end of June.I really like this business of oppositely predicting something…

Shame about Tulo. I'd feel a lot worse about it, though, if we'd had our Opening Day lineup even once since April 15. Those rib injuries really stink – they don't really hurt all that much unless you breathe hard.

The 10 strikeouts for Taylor Jordan were a career high. The 8 innings matched the longest outing of his career.The Richmond Braves' radio announcers had an interesting take. They said it's unusual for a club to let one of its pitching prospects go 8 innings and exceed 100 pitches at this level.They surmised that the Nats brass is taking a close look at Jordan and wants to stretch him out and see how he handles fatigue later in the game. He did quite well. His fastball still hit 92 in the 8th, though he was tiring.He wound up allowing four hits with just one walk and lowered his Harrisburg ERA to 0.68.The Braves' announcers praised Jordan as a very good pitching prospect and said the Nats have an embarrassment of riches on the mound.Jordan is built sorta like A.J. Cole. He's a tad shorter at 6'3, but he's listed at 190. These guys are a bit more reedy than some of the big-boy pitchers they've drafted of late.

Hello from beautiful CO. This was our first in-person game at Coors Field and it was a good one. My husband, Chicago/Denver baseball buddy, and I had a good time. I even untucked (it's okay – the only COL fans near us were in front of us at that point, as we'd climbed above the mile high seats to get out of the rain). Lovely park, and everyone was very friendly. Caught most of last night's game on the radio (we spent the day in Rockie Mountains National Park). Their radio guys were, eh, okay.Speaking of broadcasters, as one of ours is known to say: seee youu laater!

Hey 1A:Glad you're enjoying your visit. I thought Coors Field was a beautiful yard.My wife and I found Rocky Mountain National Park unforgettable, but I'm glad she suggested we spring for the tour bus rather than driving up there ourselves in the rental car.At 11,000 feet the lack of guardrails was a bit disconcerting.

Used to live in the Pacific Northwest — miss the mountains. Speaking of the high number of comments– it was fine today, but we are going to see more posts because of the WaPo paywall. Most of the new posters are just regular Nats fans, watching the game , sweating it out. I am usually alone when I watch and so I enjoy reacting with other fans during the game. We did win today – and score runs, so it was generally happy.

That's not true. Usually he strikes out swinging with the bases loaded.Late to the party, but that's not quite true. That happens if the pitch is high and out of the strike zone. If it's in the strike zone, he strikes out looking.

The WaPo pay wall isn't something to really fear… They give you 20 articles a month free… If one were to just come on for the live threads, they could get away with it…But then I again, I get the WaPo paper, so its not an issue for me..But I like this community here… I used to post here occasionally but I really like Mark's writing…

Mrs B- I have a similar social problem. My co- workers often avoid eye contact in the morning. I always DVR games so I can go back and watch good parts over again when the stress is gone. Today the game was over early enough that there was time to wind down. The Rockies fans must be distraught at losing three players though. I know how we feel when a guy goes down.

Swami – yeah its bad… I'll be in Chicago this weekend and I plan to follow all the games via gameday but I'm going to record them as well and watch them when I get back…I can count on my hands the number of Nats games ice missed…. I don't miss many…

paul brandt said… kudos to mark & company for doing this so often & how embarrassing they have to do it so often: This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Ditto.Thanks Mark, and administrators. The NI community is awesome — and is being protected by keeping the bad stuff out.Thanks — we really appreciate it.

Wonderful game today. Fun reading this blog after a lot of comments were removed by a blog administrator. Thanks Mark.I will wait until after the Rockies come to Nats Park before I will feel sorry for the Rockie fans. Then I will have much sympathy for them.

Feeling really good about the team today, and about the blog. (Glad to see that some of the earlier comments have been removed, as expected. Even as mostly a lurker, I get so much enjoyment and knowledge here, especially when I don't have to deal with that stuff.)

Minnesota Twins left fielder Josh Willingham entered play Thursday with the second-highest rate of pop-up frequency in the major leagues.Willingham's mark of 24.6 percent trailed only Atlanta's B.J. Upton in a stat that essentially boils down to percentage of infield fly balls as the numerator and total fly balls as the denominator.In other words, a quarter of Willingham's fly balls are caught on or inside the infield dirt.And while Willingham has always had a bit of a penchant for pop-ups — 13.0% career mark versus a 10.9% league average this year — he's almost doubled the 12.7% mark he posted last year when he set a career high in home runs (35).

paul brandt said… kudos to mark & company for doing this so often & how embarrassing they have to do it so often: This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Let this be a lesson to everyone. While y'all were pitching a justified bitch here about the troll, I emailed Mark to let him know someone was crapping all over his blog (his address is at the top of the page under his photo).Mark replied with a very nice email thanking me for bringing it to his attention. And you see the results.So we're all done with troll feeding, right?

Good Morning ALL! Well apparantly it was an eventful evening. Mark thanks for monitoring the site. Have the Show DVR'd so I will watch later today!As with NatsLady, have we heard anything about the Shark?? That shoulder didn't look good.Mom's in town for the degenerate nephew's graduation (YES WE GOT HIM OUT OF HIGH SCHOOL), so I hope to be catching game updates on MLB.com or I might be sneaking a small radio around with me.Good to see Ryan and Desi keep up with the hitting. I hope Desi gets the manager's pick for the ASG.. he was selected last year, but didn't even go to the game. Plus NY is so close and i think we play at home right after the ASG.Very excited to see/hear the games this weekend and CLE. I think we have a good chance for 2/3 and take yet another series.Can't believe that LannAn is pitching on Monday.Stay Positive People! and Enjoy some good games!

Drew, my husband drove up to the summit but it wasn't his first mountain-driving rodeo (getting into the local lingo here). Before the game, we visited the baseball museum near the park. The guy working there was a Nats fan who had recently relocated to Denver, and we had fun talking about RFK and Nats Park experiences with him. I highly recommend the museum, btw.We also visited the Pacific Mercantile Company before the game. It's an Asian grocery/sundries store. I was looking for a certain type of cookie as well as a maneki neko or two (lucky/beckoning cat). We found and purchased both the cookies and maneki neko. As we were checking out, the older gent behind the counter noticed our Nats gear and asked if we were going to the game. We said yes. He said, "You're going to win today." I was like, "I don't know. Our starter just came off the DL." He replied, "Doesn't matter. You're going to win." I'm like, "Well, your offense is pretty good." Him: "Doesn't matter. You're going to win." Well, grocery store dude-guy, you were right. And thank you.